When you think of the great production supply centers of North America — New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Toronto — one place just might slip your mind: Queensbury, N.Y. Believe it or not, from this idyllic setting, many lighting projects around the country are designed, managed and supplied, including theatres, convention centers, performing arts centers and schools in Pittsburgh, Penn., Peoria, Ill., Chattanooga, Tenn. and Columbia, Ga.
These are just some of the clients of upstate New York-based BMI Supply. The home-grown theatre supply and installation contractor has come a long way since Robert S. Barber — the “B” in BMI Supply –sprouted and grew the business from its original location in Glens Falls, N.Y., which is about a 30 minute drive from Saratoga Springs, about an hour from the state capital, Albany and just a short drive from the current location in Queensbury.
You might think that its remote location would put BMI Supply at a disadvantage. You’d be wrong. The company might not have access to the traffic jams and swollen population of larger metropolitan centers, but UPS and FedEx services them as promptly as their big city dwelling neighbors. And when it matters most, BMI Supply and their shipping partners deliver the goods.
That’s what the Shooting Star Casino in Mahnomen, Minn. discovered when they found themselves in a bind. Two weeks before they were scheduled to open, one of their contractors left them hanging by failing to hang the soft goods for the main stage. Worse yet, they asked for another month to deliver. But the production manager for the ca-sino refused to accept the delay. Instead, he searched until he found someone who could manufacture, deliver and install the goods. That someone was — you guessed it — BMI Supply.
In this industry, if you can’t respond in critical situations, then you probably won’t last long. No one understands that better than Barber and company, who are celebrating 20 years in busi-ness this year. As a former theatre tech teacher at Minnesota State University, Wayne State University and Florida State University, he’s well aware that the show must go on. And being able to make that happen is one of the benefits of being a privately-owned company with 18 full-time employees. When the call comes in for a project with a short lead-time, BMI is nimble enough to focus their resources where they’re needed most.
“There are many ways of communicating; formal, informal and tertiary,” said Barber. “We don’t subscribe strictly to any one method. Rather, we apply all of them to best fit the situa-tion. This streamlines the actualization of the task at hand and gets things done in a rapid fashion. Also, making sure we are up to date with current business technology serves to make sure we have fast, accurate information that affects our clients’ order.”
The company’s newly expanded 9,000 square-foot facility (supplemented by two offsite inventory storage locations) is the nerve center for the organization that includes a sales and contracting satellite office in Greer, S.C. and the online specialty hardware manufacturer TheatricalHardware.com. In addition to housing much of the inventory, includ-ing lighting, expendables, softgoods, rigging, paint and more, the Queensbury office is the operation’s headquarters for sales, contracting, administration and tech support. Five sales managers — Carl Spaulding, Steve Roudebush, Matt Williams, Mark Ross and Greg Pilewski in the South Carolina office — handle the U.S. with the assistance of Laura Cheva-lier, Nicole Moffitt, Donna Jones and Cathie Marullo. Their arsenal of offerings include some of the most recognizable names in the industry, including ETC, Rosco, Apollo, Lepre-con, Wybron and more, as well as some niche brands like Enttec, Cutawl and Dove Systems.
“We enjoy quality relationships with the vast majority of vendors in the industry,” said Roudebush. “Our customers find tremendous value in making one phone call, or sending one e-mail, knowing we bring a breadth of resources to serve their production needs. Our sales team offers a marvelous mix of lighting, rigging, scenic, audio and stage management experi-ence. Ninety-five percent of the time we’ll solve a customer’s quandary in-house. For unique situations, we not only know what company to call, but usually know exactly who at the com-pany has the answers.”
Across the building, the contracting group, led by Jason Melchert and lighting designer Kris Nutting, shares offices with the blueprint files, drawing desk and computers displaying AutoCAD drawings. Melchert, an ETCP Certified Rigger for the theatre and Nutting, an ETC Authorized Field Service Technician, rely on the help of Tom Booth, Jim Richmond and Craig An-derson to supervise the installation of the systems designed in house. Some of their newest projects include the installation of a dimming, architectural and control system at the Staller Center for the Arts in Stony Brook, N.Y., a lighting, dimming and control system at the New Life Assembly Church in Rochester, N.Y. and a dimming and control system in the John W. Engeman Theatre in Northport, N.Y.
“We frequently work with architects, consultants and owners designing rigging and lighting systems for high school and college auditoriums,” Melchert said. “In addition, we design and engineer many unique systems. We use our own AutoCAD drafting for projects, like the motorized, multi-directional house light truss assembly at the Saratoga Per-forming Arts Center with self-retracting cable systems. This system was great fun and many of the applications used for SPAC we were able to incorporate into other projects. We continually train our installers in the most up-to-date industry practices for installing rigging and dimming equipment. Our installation teams are top notch and we receive glowing comments from our customers on our professionalism and the quality of our work.”
As recently as October 2007, BMI Supply acquired the assets of TheatricalHardware.com, a manufacturer of hardware designed specifically for theatrical rigging and staging applications. With products like the Leg-a-Matic and the Shackle Plate, the company’s core business is to design and develop innovative solutions to aid in the construction and rigging of scenery. Leg-a-Matic is a metal formed system that secures 2-inch-by-4-inch legs to the underside of any wooden or metal platform. It allows you to quickly insert or remove legs of any size, saving time on the load-in and load-out. The Shackle Plate is a system of five different types of load rated plates designed to help rig scenery. It bolts to the lowest point in a set piece and the cable line that is used to fly the set piece attaches to the Shackle Plate using a shackle or turnbuckle. The cable is routed through a Keeper Plate to help manage the cable. Jason Townley founded TheatricalHardware.com in August, 2001 and the products are based on his experience as a technical director and stage carpenter. It is one aspect of BMI Supply that helps them to create end-to-end solutions including design, installation and after sales service and support.
Townley commented about the sale: “I’m headed in a different direction now, yet I wanted all of our customers to have access to and continue buying these products. All the pieces provide time savings, strength and safety. BMI Supply has an excellent reputation and a unique position to continue offering this product line.”
While the location of the business — at the edge of the Adirondack State Park, near Lake George — may not be conventional for the industry, it’s just one of the fringe benefits of working for the company. And judging by the high percentage of long-term employees, keeping the employees and the customers both happy is a strategy that seems to pay divi-dends.
“We want our customers and employees to win,” Barber says, “because if they win, they’re happy and life is a little bit better.”
